In this movie, it chronicles the true story of Susanna Kaysen who showed many signs of a psychological disorder that placed her in a life-altering, 18 months, stay at famous Claymoore Psychiatric Hospital in the late 1960's. During my research, I discovered per https://books.google.com, Susanna was checked into the McLean Psychiatric Hospital, which was given the fictional name “Claymoore” in the film. Susanna was originally diagnosed by Dr. Phillip W. Crumble with Time jumps, depression, hallucinations and suicidal symptoms before being admitted into the Psychiatric Hospital. Once she arrived, she was reevaluated by Dr. Melvin Potts with borderline personality disorder. Per DMS-5 REFERENCE CODE 301.83 (F60.3) page 325 states that Borderline …show more content…
Personality Disorder is: A persuasive pattern of instability of impersonal relationships, self-imaging, and effects and market impulsivity, beginning by early adult hood & present in a variety of contents as indicated by 5 or more of the following: 1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. 2. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation. 3. Identifying disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self. 4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). 5. Recurring suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior. 6. Affective instability due to marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely a few days). 7. Chronic feelings of emptiness. 8. Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulties controlling anger (e.g., frequent displaces of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights). 9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms. In my opinion, my diagnosis would be substance related disorder and more precise unspecified tobacco-related disorder. The DMS-5 code 292.9 (F17.209) page 277 states unspecified tobacco-related disorder category applies to presentations in which symptoms characteristic of a tobacco-related disorder that causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning predominate but do not meet the full criteria for any specific tobacco-related disorder or any of the disorders in the substance-related and addictive disorders diagnostic class. Also, I would diagnose her with Dissociative Disorder. Per the DMS-5 code 300.14 (F44.81) page 155, dissociative Identity Disorder states A. Disruption of identity characterized by two or more distinct personality states, which may be described in some cultures as an experience of possession. The disruption in identity involves marked discontinuity in sense of self and sense of agency, accompanied by related alterations in affect, behavior, consciousness, memory, perception, cognition, and/or sensory-motor functioning. These signs and symptoms may be observed by others or reported by the individual. B. Recurrent gaps in the recall of everyday events, important personal information, and/or traumatic events that are inconsistent with ordinary forgetting. C. The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. D. The disturbance is not a normal part of a broadly acceptance cultural or religious practice. NOTE: In children, the symptoms are not better explained by imaginary playmates or other fantasy play. E. The symptoms are not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (e.g., blackouts or chaotic behavior during alcohol intoxication) or another medical condition (e.g., complex partial seizures). In explanation of the symptoms Susanna Kaysen was experiencing that led me to diagnose her with tobacco-related disorder and dissociative disorder was perfectly displayed in the movie. Susanna was troubled by the inability of not being able to control her time travel. In her mind, she would travel back & forth from different time eras of her life and would associate it as being the present time. When she confused dreams and daydreams with reality. When being questioned, she would not only have to smoke a cigarette but she would disassociate herself mentally and temporarily from reality and assume she is currently living the past due to her denial of her mental condition. When Susanna was being questioned in therapy by Dr. Wick, Susanna admitted to having a theory about her life being a mystical undertow and a quicksand of shadows. She stated, “that she sometime feels like she's on a moving train & she's not even in motion.” She also believed that the doctors didn't know what they were doing. Although, the doctors thought that Susanna's progress had plateaued, Susanna acknowledged that there was a problem coping with the quicksand. When Dr. Wick asked Susanna if plateauing disappointed her, she said, “I'm ambivalent!” Which became her new word. She repeated the word & thought it meant to not care. When the Doctor explained that it meant having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone, she got upset & offended. The Doctor proceeded to question Susanna. She asked, “What world is this?” “What Kingdom?” “What shores of what world?” The choices of her life such as: “How much will she indulge in her flaws?” “What flaws will she indulge in and are they really flaws?” and “If she was to embrace them, will she be forced to commit herself to this mental hospital for life?” These questions seemed like very big questions that she never considered due to the carelessness expression upon her face. The impact that this condition is having on her life is tremendous.
Even though Susanna wants to be a writer, her condition has prevented her to see what a great writer she already is. She keeps a journal that she writes in continuously daily. She includes all observations and experiences as well as her own opinions of other she meets. Susanna also had the dysfunctional tendency of developing promiscuous relations with almost every man she encountered. Due to the commotion in her head, she confused it with a headache and she needed to take an entire bottle of aspirin down with a bottle of vodka. Professionals took this action as an attempt to commit suicide. Her parents, as well as Dr. Crumble, agreed that she needed a break and Claywood Psychiatric Hospital would be perfect for people like her. So, Dr. Crumble called a cab & had her admitted. Upon her arrival, she found that the ward wasn't a place for her. The other woman in her ward was far worse than she was & she felt like she didn't fit. She then met her roommate & got acquainted with her & the other girls in the ward. She wrongly misunderstood Lisa, with whom she later became good friends with. Due to her condition, she has never had female friends before only males. In getting close with the others, she found herself in deep, close-knit friendships with 6 others woman & turned down the opportunity to skip town with her boyfriend. She found great value in her new, found, friendships with them and didn't want to …show more content…
leave. When she found her friend, Daisy, who hung herself in the bathroom, it was a reality check for Susanna. She said, “She would never know what it was like to be Daisy but she does know what it's like to want to die.” Susanna knew how it hurts to smile and how she would try to fit in but couldn't. She also realized how she would hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside. She didn't know how she was going to recover because she didn't understand her disease up until this point. The head nurse, Valerie, gave her some great advice. Valerie told her, “Open up, get it out of yourself, put it in your notebook, and tell your Doctors all of this. So, you can't curl up with it anymore. Do not drop anchor here.” From that point on Susanna, voluntarily started to talk openly to her therapist three times a week and focusing on getting better by facing her inner self and her reality. The treatment I would recommend for Susanna is to continue to talk to her therapist at least three times a week and follow all instructions given to her by the therapist. I will start her on a tobacco patch to help wean her off cigarettes and will see Susanna in my office once a month for the next three months. We will then pursue the goal of spacing out her visits per her recovery over the next year. My long-term prognosis for Susanna is to build a foundation of appreciation and respect for herself.
Continue to practice good communication with others. Then I would also like for her to pursue her dream as a writer. Build upon her support system by rekindling her broken relationship with her parents. She needs to practice focusing on the positive attributes of her life instead of any negatives that may arise. Build healthy relationships with females outside of the ward. Re-frame from promiscuous activities. Do not indulge in sexual intercourse with a male until you have been in the relationship for at least three months. Continue to embrace the inner self and indulge in self-improvement to overcome the dissociative
disorder. In conclusion, I feel Susanna is beyond the recovery point of borderline personality disorder as diagnosed by Doctor Melvin Potts. She has shown a remarkable transformation from the time she entered the ward, to the time she was released. I feel very optimistic on Susanna living a full and productive life.
Susanna was admitted into Claymoore Hospital and was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder. I believe that Susanna met the criteria for a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. A person that has been diagnosed with BPD are
The movie, Awakenings, begins by showing a little boy, Leonard Lowe, playing in the park with his friends. Those same friends join Leonard as they go to school. While at school, Leonard begins to show signs that he is having difficulty writing. His teacher, looks through his notebook and notices that his writing has suddenly gotten worse. His teacher then notifies Mrs. Lowe of her findings. It is evident that Leonard’s right hand has curled to the point that he can no longer use it to write (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
Holly Janquell is a runaway. Wendelin Van Draanan creates a twelve year old character in the story, Runaway, that is stubborn and naive enough to think she can live out in the streets alone, until she is eighteen.She has been in five foster homes for the past two years. She is in foster care because her mother dies of heroin overdose. In her current foster home, she is abused, locked in the laundry room for days without food, and gets in even more trouble if she tries to fight back. Ms.Leone, her schoolteacher, could never understand her, and in Holly’s opinion, probably does not care. No one knows what she is going through, because she never opens up to any one. Ms. Leone gives Holly a journal at school one day and tells her to write poetry and express her feelings. Holly is disgusted. But one day when she is sitting in the cold laundry room, and extremely bored, she pulls out the diary, and starts to write. When Holly can take no more of her current foster home, she runs, taking the journal with her. The journal entries in her journal, are all written as if she is talking to Ms.Leone, even though she will probably never see her again. Over the course of her journey, Holly learns to face her past through writing, and discovers a love for poetry. At some point in this book, Holly stops venting to Ms. Leone and starts talking to her, almost like an imaginary friend, and finally opens up to her.
The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression. " In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
It is clear that in their marriage, her husband makes her decisions on her behalf and she is expected to simply follow blindly. Their relationship parallels the roles that men and women play in marriage when the story was written. The narrator’s feelings of powerlessness and submissive attitudes toward her husband are revealing of the negative effects of gender roles. John’s decision to treat the narrator with rest cure leads to the narrator experiencing an intense feeling of isolation, and this isolation caused her mental decline. Her descent into madness is at its peak when she grows tears the wallpaper and is convinced that “[she’s] got out at last, in spite of [John] and Jennie… and [they] can’t put her back!”
There is no one to listen to her or care for her ‘personal’ opinions. Her husband cares for her, in a doctor’s fashion, but her doesn’t listen to her (Rao, 39). Dealing with a mentally ill patient can be difficult, however, it’s extremely inappropriate for her husband to be her doctor when he has a much larger job to fulfill. He solely treats his wife as a patient telling her only what could benefit her mental sickness rather than providing her with the companionship and support she desperately needs. If her husband would have communicated with her on a personal level, her insanity episode could have been prevented. Instead of telling her everything she needed he should’ve been there to listen and hear her out. Instead she had to seek an alternate audience, being her journal in which he then forbids her to do. All of this leads to the woman having nobody to speak or express emotion to. All of her deep and insane thoughts now fluttered through her head like bats in the Crystal Cave.
The story begins when she and her husband have just moved into a colonial mansion to relieve her chronic nervousness. An ailment her husband has conveniently diagnosed. The husband is a physician and in the beginning of her writing she has nothing but good things to say about him, which is very obedient of her. She speaks of her husband as if he is a father figure and nothing like an equal, which is so important in a relationship. She writes, "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction." It is in this manner that she first delicately speaks of his total control over her without meaning to and how she has no choices whatsoever. This control is perhaps so imbedded in our main character that it is even seen in her secret writing; "John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition...so I will let it alone and talk about the house." Her husband suggests enormous amounts of bed rest and no human interaction at all. He chooses a "prison-like" room for them to reside in that he anticipates will calm our main character even more into a comma like life but instead awakens her and slowly but surely opens her eyes to a woman tearing the walls down to freedom.
John, the husband of the narrator, believes based on his professional knowledge that it is better for her to stay in a room until she makes a sense of improvement. The authoritative role that John plays in the story makes him the independent variable due to his actions of manipulation, lack of empathy, and absence of concern over what her wife needs to say. Even though the narrator wants to be heard, she remains with a submissive attitude throughout the story making her the dependent variable by leaving her entire illness inside John’s hands[responsibility]. John at this point has the power to take her condition to a total different direction but instead decides to ignore what she has to say and completely rely on his assumptions, which evidently lead to a tragic
The narrator is ordered by her husband, who is serving as her physician as well, that she is “absolutely forbidden to work” and instead get “perfect rest,” and “all the air” the narrator can get (Gilman, 549). The narrator is confined to spend her time in a room which is playing tricks on her mind until she can no longer identify reality from her imagination. Another cause of the narrator’s loneliness is her husband’s rare presence at home due to his work as a physician, “away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious,” leaving the narrator with his sister, who even then also leaves the narrator alone most of the time (Gilman, 550). The narrator falls into a state of insanity because she hardly had anyone with her to normally interact with. The only interaction she did have was that of the yellow wallpaper which constantly plagued her
...f the bad that is going on in her real life, so she would have a happy place to live. With the collapse of her happy place her defense was gone and she had no protection from her insanity anymore. This caused all of her blocked out thoughts to swarm her mind and turn her completely insane. When the doctor found her, he tried to go in and help her. When the doctor finally got in he fainted because he had made so many positive changes with her and was utterly distressed when he found out that it was all for naught. This woman had made a safety net within her mind so that she would not have to deal with the reality of being in an insane asylum, but in the end everything failed and it seems that what she had been protecting herself from finally conquered her. She was then forced to succumb to her breakdown and realize that she was in the insane asylum for the long run.
Susan, the protagonist in “To Room Nineteen” feels trapped by her life and her family, and afflicted by her husband’s infidelity. Everyone assumes Susan and her husband are the perfect couple who have made all the right choices in life, but when Susan packs her youngest children off to school and discovers that her husband has been having an affair, she begins to question the life decisions she has made. Susan chooses to isolate herself from her own family by embarking on a journey of self-discovery in a hotel room that ultimately becomes a descend into madness. Unlike Susan, the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” initially wants contact and interaction with people, but is
477). To rule out schizophrenia we look at criteria B and C. Criteria B states for a significant portion of time the onset of disturbance, level of functioning in one or more area is markedly below the level achieved prior to onset. From the movie you see that Anne goes from be delusional but is still able to maintain daily functions. Criteria C states “Continuous signs of disturbance persist for at least 6 months’ period” (Barlow & Durand,2015, pg.481). Annie does exhibit sign of odd behavior for 6
The movie “Awakenings” directed by Penny Marshall reveals the victims of an encephalitis epidemic from 1917-1928. The patients at Bainbridge Hospital in Bronx, New York 1969 are all living with a rare disease that puts them into a comatose or frozen state and completely unresponsive due from swelling of the brain. Dr. Malcolm Sayer is a driven man that attempts to awaken all of his patients, using observation, interviews, experiments and topical research he tries to find a cure. Leonard Lowe and Lucy Fishman are two of many patients that have this rare disease. Through the work of Dr.Sayer and his assistant Eleanor Costello there were able to “Awaken” all of their patients and able to bring joy back to many of the patients families, one of
Gilman shows through this theme that when one is forced to stay mentally inactive can only lead to mental self-destruction. The narrator is forced into a room and told to be passive, she is not allowed to have visitors, or write, or do much at all besides sleep. Her husband believes that a resting cure will rid her of her “slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 478). Without the means to express herself or exercise her mind in anyway the narrator begins to delve deeper and deeper into her fantasies. The narrator begins to keep a secret journal, about which she states “And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way - it is such a relief” (Gilman 483)! John tells his wife that she must control her imagination, lest it run away with her. In this way John has asserted full and complete dominance over his wife. The narrator, though an equal adult to her husband, is reduced to an infancy. In this state the narrator begins her slow descent into hysteria, for in her effort to understand herself she fully and completely loses herself.
She follows this up immediately by describing the unfortunate circumstance she finds herself in, "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression---a slight hysterical tendency---what is one to do?" (486) It does not help her case that her brother is also a physician, "My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing" (486). By the end of the story, she goes from describing the woman confined within the wallpaper to becoming the woman herself. However, she could have avoided this had her husband and brother taken Gillman's advice. After following her physician's advice for a while before recognizing how harmful it was, Gillman described what ultimately cured her, "Then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained, and helped by a wise friend, I cast the noted specialist's advice to the winds and went to work again--work, the normal life of every human being; work, in which is joy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a parasite--ultimately recovering some measure of power"